Neoclassicism, as a return to the forms and ideals of ancient art, and Romanticism, as an intellectual attitude, are no longer seen as mutually exclusive alternatives. Looking specifically to Europe, the United States and Russia, the authors of The Essence of Culture: Neoclassicism and Romanticism have selected the notion of subjectivism as the common denominator that links the visual arts and architecture between the periods of rococo and realism. A conscious decision was made to extend the time period under consideration to 1848 in order to be able to present painters as widely varied as Johann Heinrich Fussli, John Constable, William Turner, William Blake, Caspar David Friedrich, Philipp Otto Runge and Francisco de Goya within this sumptuously illustrated book.